Several U.S. patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,637,455; 3,954,212; 4,329,382; 4,476,168 and 4,515,837 have described prefabricated bow forms of the type comprising two bow ribbons disposed in opposed relationship, and at least one pull string or tie ribbon (called tie ribbon hereinafter) disposed centrally between the bow ribbons, with first ends of the bow and tie ribbons bonded together, and the bow ribbons being bonded together at a plurality of spaced bonded areas adjacent both longitudinal edges of the tie ribbon so that the tie ribbon is unbonded to the bow ribbons but is constrained between the bow ribbons. The spaced bonded areas define lines extending across the bow ribbons about which the bow ribbons will fold to form loops when the bonded areas of the bow ribbons are gathered together adjacent the first ends of the bow ribbons, which gathering is done either by pushing the bonded areas farthest from the first ends toward the first ends while the tie ribbon is held by its second end, by pulling on the second end of the tie ribbon while the bow ribbons are held adjacent the bonded areas closest to their second ends, or a combination of such pushing and pulling.
Of the patents described above, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,637,455; 3,954,212; and 4,515,837 have described such prefabricated bow forms specifically intended to form a Pom bow (which may be called a pompom bow or a pompon bow by some), which is a generally hemispherically shaped bow defined by a plurality of loops of generally the same length generally evenly distributed about and projecting from a center of the bow radially outwardly and progressively upwardly toward the top of the bow to define a generally hemispherical periphery with no visually significant open areas.
The bow ribbons in the prefabricated bow forms for Pom bows described in those patents, however, have been notched to facilitate positioning the loops in the radial and upward pattern to form the desired generally hemispherical Pom shape, which positioning typically required manual manipulation of the loops after they were formed. Also, such notching added expense to making the bow form and restricted the width of the tie ribbon that could be used in the bow form.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,168 describes a prefabricated bow form that is closest in its structural features to the prefabricated bow form described herein in that it describes unnotched bow ribbons bonded together at spaced bonded areas with relatively wide tie ribbons therebetween, which tie ribbons can be tied or adhered around an item such as a package to which a bow made from the bow form is to be attached; and describes the use of such spaced bonded areas to define a combination of fold lines extending both normal to and at acute angles to the edges of the bow ribbons, with triangular sections of the ribbons between some of such differently oriented fold lines to cause loops to orient in different angular relationships radially of the bow formed with the bow form. The bows formed by the prefabricated bow forms described in that patent, however, either have loops positioned directly above each other in the form of a cross (FIG. 6) which is not a desired shape for a Pom bow, or have four loops at right angles to each other with loops above and below bisecting the angle formed between opposing loops (FIG. 13) which forms a bow that, while perhaps having its own appeal, also does not have the shape of a conventional Pom bow.